engle
Member
If you lease and decide to buy the car you loose the benefit of that $7,500 credit the way Tesla structures the leases because the $7,500 is not applied as a Cap Cost Reduction as it should be. Apart from that I agree with you in that you are paying to rent the car as well as the interest for financing the value of the car.
You do get the $7,500 tax credit benefit during the lease since it is added to the residual value, which lowers your monthly payments. For example, for the Model X, the residual values are: 52%/51%/50%; all + $7,500 more; for 10K/12K/15K miles per year on their 36 month lease. But if you buy the vehicle at the end, you end-up paying $7,500 extra, which is unfortunate.
When I asked why the $7,500 can't be used to reduce capitalized cost, instead, my very responsive Tesla Credit Specialist replied:
"1. The money factor for all customers who lease with us is 0.0017.
2. This is the only way our partnering bank (US Bank) allows us to pass the Federal Tax credit to our customers.
Since there is no way to adjust the $7,500 Fed Tax credit toward the cap cost, our current indirect lenders will finance up to 90% of your vehicle configuration price (you would be responsible for the 10% not financed plus sales tax and registration costs). Our current advertised rates are about 2.75% for 72 months and 2.45% for 60 months. "
To convert a money factor to APR, multiply by 2,400 so 0.0017 x 2,400 = 4.08%. This is for Model X. Model S may be less since I understand there is a lease special right now?
Since one can find 1.99% 60 month loans from credit unions, you are paying 0.46% higher to get Tesla's Resale Value guarantee.
I still decided to lease my X because I expect that in 3 years time there will be a higher capacity battery from the GF, and the next generation of AutoPilot with new hardware.